Natural Resources Committee on Dec. 4th, 2012

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

I have one more question.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

I'm sorry, Mr. Eyking. Your time is more than up, by about a minute and a half.

We'll go now to Mr. Allen, for up to five minutes.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for being here today.

I want to pick up on a couple of Mr. Eyking's comments. I'm glad that the Atlantic caucus from the Liberals went up to the oil sands to see the potential benefit of that. There's a tremendous benefit. I'm glad he is supporting us in developing that and looking for all the opportunities to get our resources out to market.

One of the things, Minister, that we have heard about a lot in the news lately is the reversal of Line 9 and the potential pipeline coming east as an opportunity to open up more markets for oil sands product, which I think is tremendous. I'm sure that my colleague, Mr. Calkins, would be very happy that we're exploring all these markets as well.

In the estimates, where you talk about the funding of $5.9 million to strengthen the capacity to inspect oil and gas pipelines, are those dollars going to be something that will improve our record on pipeline safety? In your view, does that prepare us for when we start to expand our pipelines and potentially look at a pipeline east?

[Joe Oliver, Conservative, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

There's great interest in a Line 9 reversal because it holds the promise of bringing a less costly light crude, initially, to Quebec and maybe Atlantic Canada, to the refineries in Lévis, in Montreal, and in Saint John. I was just at the Ultramar refinery in Lévis. I will be going fairly soon to the Irving Oil refinery in Saint John. It will create jobs. It will provide a lesser cost crude to the refineries. It has the potential for reducing the cost of fuel at the pump. It's quite positive.

Our government is providing new resources to ensure that the Canadian pipeline system is the safest in the world. In the jobs, growth, and long-term economic prosperity budget, new funding was devoted to increasing pipeline safety. The new funding in supplementary estimates (B) will allow the National Energy Board to hire new safety staff. The additional staff will allow the NEB to increase the number of annual inspections it conducts by 50%, from 100 to 150. It will also double the number of comprehensive audits conducted on its regulated companies. The funding will be, as I mentioned, cost recovered from industry.

Our government remains committed to having the strongest pipeline safety regime in the world.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Thank you.

I want to switch gears to forestry. In the previous session, Mr. Dupont talked about the forest innovation program and the expanding market opportunities program. He specifically pointed out a couple of statistics. China is growing from $166 million to $1.5 billion, and in South Korea the market is actually doubling.

I know, Minister, you've done a significant amount of travelling, and that's why I said it was promoting resources, and not just the resources, but also our forestry resources abroad.

I wonder if you could speak to some of the other potential opportunities for the forest industry and to the market opportunities program. Are they in continued expansion in China and South Korea? Do you see an expansion in value-added products being exported out of Canada as potentially helping our forest industry grow and continue to grow and innovate?

[Joe Oliver, Conservative, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

In response to an earlier question, I talked a bit about the expanding markets opportunity program and the forest innovation program. We see enormous continuing demand in China, India, and Japan. The markets are different. The Japanese market is looking for high-quality wood.

I was in the Sendai district, which had been hit by the tsunami, and I was very moved to see a ship carrying B.C. lumber that had come in. That lumber is being used for reconstruction efforts in that country and is greatly appreciated. Canadian wood is very well respected there.

In China, I was in an area where the very first four-storey wood-frame building in the entire country had been constructed. There's a cultural issue there. We need to propagate the advantages of wood. Wood lasts a long time—the Forbidden City is made of wood—and the Chinese know that, even though they don't have many homes that are built from wood. It's more resistant to earthquakes, and, depending on the quality, it can be very attractive for price-sensitive buyers, which the Chinese market has.

There is enormous potential. Given the huge increase in the middle class in China and India and the demand for second homes, which can often be wood-frame homes, we see tremendous opportunity.

Frankly, if it weren't for the Chinese market, I don't know where the Canadian lumber industry would be today. I've heard that expressed on numerous occasions. Frankly, that market plus the $1.7 billion that our government has invested actually saved the industry.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Allen.

Mr. Trost, go ahead for up to five minutes, please.

[Bradley Trost, Conservative, Saskatoon—Humboldt, SK]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

In looking through our voted appropriations, I see there's a line, “Funding to support the Isotope Technology Acceleration Program to advance the development of alternatives to existing medical isotope production technologies”.

I won't be asking about the exact amount, but having been on this committee in the days when Chalk River had its difficulties, shall we say, I'm wondering if you could elaborate on where that program is going as we're looking toward finding alternative sources for isotope production.

[Joe Oliver, Conservative, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Thank you for the question.

The health and safety of Canadians is clearly a priority for our government, and we continue to work domestically and internationally to promote a more secure supply of medical isotopes.

The economic action plan 2012 provided $25 million over four years to continue the development of non-reactor-based isotope production to help secure the supply of medical isotopes for Canadians. This investment reinforces Canada's leadership in medical isotopes. It opens technology export opportunities, and it supports high-quality jobs at home.

Investment also contributes to nuclear safety and non-proliferation by removing the need for highly enriched weapons grade uranium and nuclear material in the production of medical isotopes. It would furthermore significantly reduce the amount of radioactive waste generated for medical isotope production. We're very encouraged by this technological innovation.

[Bradley Trost, Conservative, Saskatoon—Humboldt, SK]

Thank you, Mr. Minister.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Mr. Trost, I just want to let you know that I'm going to have to reduce your time by a little bit. We need a couple of minutes. I want to give the opposition some time, and we need a little bit of time to go through the actual votes so we can have the supplementary estimates reported to the House.

[Bradley Trost, Conservative, Saskatoon—Humboldt, SK]

How much more time do I have, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

You have about two minutes.

[Bradley Trost, Conservative, Saskatoon—Humboldt, SK]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My stopwatch is going again.

Earlier, your deputy minister's notes, and yours might too, noted that the goal for NRCan to help the government reach its deficit reduction objectives is $112 million annually by 2014-15, or 10% of the department's base, because on certain issues natural resources is just an accounting for funds coming in and on, a sort of offshore banking we do for some of the provinces.

Where are you in progress to that $112 million in terms of your target? Is there a possibility that you could exceed that and find more savings than had been originally forecast?

[Joe Oliver, Conservative, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Let me start by saying the taxpayers expect the government to use their money wisely, and reducing the deficit requires the government to be responsible with funding.

In fact over 70% of the savings government-wide are in operational efficiencies, such as reducing travel expenses by using virtual tools such as teleconferencing, video conferencing, and virtual presence, and reducing duplication across departments by combining administrative functions like human resources, financial services, communications and IT, and replacing paper publications with online content.

We continue to find ways to save money. The questions we ask of the department are whether the programs support our core roles, whether they're effective, whether they're affordable in our current fiscal environment, whether we can deliver services more efficiently. The savings have to take into account the change in economic and fiscal circumstances. In some cases programs are simply scaled back to maintain affordability, such as in areas where industry is now better positioned to assume a greater proportion of the costs.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Trost.

We go now to Mr. Gravelle, and Ms. Liu if there is time left, for about three and a half minutes.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I just want to notify the committee that we will be moving the motion requesting tabling of details on staffing cuts and service level impacts of the spending review.

Mr. Minister, you talked about big projects being developed. There's a big project in northern Ontario called the Ring of Fire. The Premier of Ontario has called it the most significant mining development in Canada in a century. Members of your party have called it the oil sands for Ontario.

We have a chance here to get it right and do something for the environment, do something for the economy, do something for first nations' rights, all at the same time, and create hundreds of jobs for hundreds of years, by getting everyone at the table at the same time to do, as a first nation is requesting, a joint federal-provincial review that covers everything. A joint federal-provincial review is not the same thing as a comprehensive study.

Why not do that? Why not get everybody to the table and do it right the first time?

[Joe Oliver, Conservative, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

I certainly agree that the Ring of Fire has enormous potential for economic development for Ontario and for Canada. There are vast chromite deposits there, some 50 billion dollars' worth. I think it would also create employment and economic benefits for aboriginal communities. We are delighted that there is this opportunity in Ontario. We're going to be taking a whole of government approach to this opportunity and working as appropriate with the province going forward.

I haven't personally received a specific request about that, but we're very interested in how we can be helpful to advance development in Ontario's north.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you.

It sounds to me, from your answer, that you're willing to do a joint federal–provincial review that covers everything. Is that what I hear you say?

[Joe Oliver, Conservative, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

No, you didn't, actually.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

I thought I did.

[Joe Oliver, Conservative, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Well, there you go.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

Don't you want to help the first nations? Don't you want to create jobs for hundreds of years? Don't you want to get the environment right? This is our future. This is the future of Ontario.

[Joe Oliver, Conservative, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

We absolutely do. We absolutely want to be helpful. I'd like to talk to my colleagues about the precise mechanism to do that.

In response to your question, the critical point is that we want to work on a collaborative basis with our provincial colleagues, including, of course, the Government of Ontario.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you.

Madame Liu.